Lemon & Thyme Alfredo

A few months ago, I was ecstatic to discover the Pappardelle’s Pasta stand at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Pappardelle’s Pasta is available all over the U.S. and at The Market, they have bins and binsof the most amazing looking and great smelling pasta you’ll find. It is too hard to pick just one kind per trip.So my last time there, I picked up a few! One of the first Pappardelle’s Pastas I cooked was their Pacific Rim Pasta Blend, shown above. I was attracted to its name and its vibrant colors, shapes, and of course the ingredients it is made of. They include lemon, ginger, buckwheat, garlic, cilantro, cayenne, curry, spinach, onions, and leeks to name a few. I had no idea what this would taste like, or even what I was going to make it with, but it was so aromatic that I had to try it.Then one cold evening, when I was craving rich, winter comfort food without a lot of work, I created my Pacific Rim Alfredo with Lemon and Thyme. I decided to use the freshest ingredients I had, including the fresh lemon (pucker up, baby! ha 🙂 and thyme shown above, which I had also picked up from Pike Place Market. A comforting, creamy alfredo can really sparkle when instead of using plain old fettucini, you use the multi-colored and bold-flavored Pacific Rim Pasta Blend.

My method:
1. Cook the pasta.
2. In a non-stick sauce pan, heat the butter on medium and throw in the garlic.
3. Let it cook for a few minutes without letting it burn, and add the cream.
4. Keep whisking as it heats — the key is to not let a skin form.
5. Once the cream heats up a bit, add freshly grated parmesan and keep stirring till it melts. Make sure you leave no lumps.
6. Add salt, freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
7. Once the sauce thickens, add the lemon zest, thyme, and a squeeze of lemon juice to the mix.
8. Add the cooked pasta and toss for a minute or two, then take it off the heat.
9. Serve with freshly grated parmesan, pepper, and I suggest you pair with your favorite citrus-strong Riesling!

The fresh lemon and thyme accented the pasta’s own herbs and spices perfectly and garlic brought all the flavors together. The red ziti in Pacific Rim Pasta Blend also has a huge kick of cayenne. Pappardelle’s people were serious when they had warned there was cayenne in there. Every time I got a bit of the red ziti, I was glad to have a creamy alfredo balancing it off.

Whenever we have an alfredo, we open a different bottle of Riesling, which we find to be the most versatile wine. We especially look for a Riesling with enough citrus to cut through the creaminess and cleanse our palates for the next bite! Pacific Rim with Alfredo was a perfect match for a stand-up, New World Riesling like many we have met from Upstate New York and the Pacific Northwest.

Pappardelle’s Pasta in Pike Place Market also shares recipe suggestions with market-goers, and I’ll have to suggest they spread the word about my Pacific Rim Alfredo with Lemon and Thyme 🙂

18 Comments

Your pictures are absolutely amazing. I never knew u get pasta in so many flavours.Gosh how ignorant am i? or maybe just not lucky enough to have such a wonderful market place to source ingredients from.I’ve only seen the store packed, spinach, tomato and wholewheat kinds!The flavours are simply fantastic in this pasta dish girl. U really should have been my neighbour. I would have made the desserts and u the main course !! haha , or maybe you could just mail me a packet of that lovely pasta.

What a fantastic combination of flavors! I look forward to trying this one out. I can tell you I’ve tried just about every pasta from that stall! I have some of the curry flavored one in my pantry that I’m trying to figure out a recipe for.

amanda – thanks, give it a try it because garlic and lemon help cut through the richness of the cream.kajal – thank you – means a lot when you say pictures are good 😀 yes, we can get pasta in amazing flavors (which i did not know about until a few years ago so don’t feel bad) perhaps, i can send you some! and neighbors, any day in exchange of your cakes? ;)patricia – thanks! lemon goes incredibly well with thyme, and if you can find a lemon-thyme (just one of the varieties of scented thyme) it would be even better.seadevi – nice! hope eric likes it 🙂 and yes, pappardelle’s is great…once you go, you’ll be hooked on it. love the market, there is always something new waiting to be discovered every time i go.erik – you beat me then! i think i have tried about 5 kinds there…perhaps you can tell me more about what other pastas from there you like. for a curry one, make sure you use strong flavors like onions, garlic, and perhaps even dried red pepper flakes or green chilies if you can handle…curry goes well with bold flavors depending on how strong it is…think indian 😉

I adore Pappardelle’s! I love their CHOCOLATE PASTA, which is boiled like any other variety but then you top it with whipped cream or whatever sweetness you desire. Oh so good, especially after a dinner like this–carbo loading for energy to walk back down to the market!!

Cakespy – You said it! Chocolate pasta is what I have been wanting to buy next. I’ll have to think up some interesting sauce combos, too ;)Dhanggit – Thank you, I really wasn’t sure about the photos until the end, and they turned out ok.Richa – Thanks for stopping by!Frantic Foodie – Thank you, it tasted delicious, too!White On Rice Couple – Thanks, I love to show the ingredients (especially from the market) as that is what really inspires me and I want my readers to experience it as well 🙂

hi,i wanted to email you, but could not locate your email address on the blog.blogsjam is a new web-based blog reader, organized by channels.your blog is included in blogsjam.pl. check it out, and contact me at saibose@gmail.com, if you have any questions.we also have a cool widget, that will not only help get moredistribution for your blog,but it can also be used to feature fresh and contextual posts on your blog.thx-Saikat

Anticiplate – Thanks, I love the different shapes, too! They make a pasta dish much more interesting.Saikat – Thanks a lot for letting me know about BlogsJam, I am happy to be listed there! I will check it out for more features. By the way, my email address is on my profile 🙂

I found this on Tastespotting, and I’m making it tonight – but since I’m not in the Seattle area, I can’t get the Pappardelle’s pasta. So I’m going to just throw in pinches of the spices used in the pastas, and hope for the best… haha.

Camille – Thanks for stopping by. I hope it turned out ok, substituting another pasta should work…I usually have this sauce with plain old linguine or fettucini. I have linked to Pappardelle’s if you are interested in buying online, do check out their site, they have a lot to offer.